IWC Masters student wins AWA National Undergraduate Water Prize

Samuel Cleary, IWC Master of Integrated Water Management student, has won the National Undergraduate Water Prize at Ozwater 10 with his paper "Targeting strategic tree and perennial plantings to reduce stream salinity in the Warren River Catchment".

Samuel Cleary

The Warren River in the south-west of Western Australia was been promoted as a potential water resource for the south-west coast. With stream salinity above potable drinking standards, the Warren River Catchment was identified as a priority recovery catchment and is currently managed by the State Government Department of Water.

In building on previous work by the Department of Water in 2005, the LUCICAT model was used to identify the high salt load regions and assess different land-use management approaches in aiming to achieve potable standards by 2030. Tree and perennial pasture planting scenarios were generated to assess their impact in reducing groundwater levels and salt load inputs into the river.

Strategic approaches, identifying and planting in high salt load regions, was shown to be highly effective in reducing the salt load inputs.